US eyes more China tariffs if Trump-Xi meeting fails: reports

Trade war may escalate unless progress made at meeting on the sidelines of Group of 20 leaders' summit in November.

30 Oct 2018 04:27 GMT

Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on all Chinese goods totaling more than $500bn [Mandel Ngan/AFP]

The United States is preparing to announce tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports by early December if talks next month between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping fail to ease the trade war.

According to a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources, no decisions have been made, but a new list of US tariffs was being prepared in case the Trump-Xi meeting does not yield progress.

A person familiar with the US administration's tariff deliberations told Reuters news agency there could soon be movement towards a new round of tariffs, adding that "the wheels are turning" in that direction.

Trump has long threatened to impose tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports into the US, which exceed $257bn, if Beijing fails to meet US demands for sweeping changes to Chinese trade, technology transfer, and industrial subsidy policies.

Trump has already imposed tariffs on $250bn worth of Chinese goods, and China responded with retaliatory duties on $110bn worth of US goods.

US-China Business Council senior vice president Erin Ennis said it would not be a surprise to see Trump move towards announcing more tariffs, given his repeated threats to do so. But she said the group, representing US companies doing business in China, was urging both sides to better use the time before the Trump-Xi meeting to figure out how progress can be made on substantive issues.

"Our hope is that cooler heads will prevail and they will start having substantive discussions that will address the Americans' concerns and start lifting the tariffs," Ennis said.